Building a Successful Virtualization Lab Environment – A Real World Approach
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Transcript of Building a Successful Virtualization Lab Environment – A Real World Approach
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BUILDING A
SUCCESSFUL
VIRTUALIZATION LAB
ENVIRONMENT
– A REAL WORLD APPROACH
Simon Seagrave
EMC vSpecialist
& Blogger
Kiwi_Si
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Goal of this session
• This session will cover many of the considerations and aspects to designing, implementing and running your own successful VMware vSphere lab environment.
• Virtualization doesn't have to be expensive, I’ll show you how your business can implement a vSphere lab on a budget.
• I’ll explain how to navigate through the many different options you will face when architecting a vSphere environment to assist you in making the right decisions
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Why should your business run a
VMware vSphere lab?
Common Reasons…
• Free up valuable production
resource.
• Reduce risk of test/dev
environments affecting
production systems.
• IT Staff product familiarisation
& training.
• Controlled patch & application
release environment.
• Easy first steps into
virtualisation & your
business’s journey to the
private cloud.
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What makes up a vSphere lab?
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Hardware Compatibility Guide
• The VMware Hardware Compatibility
Guide (HGC) lists all the various hardware
components that are supported by each
version of ESX & ESXi
• Split up into different sub-guides which
include systems (server make/models),
storage devices (SAN/iSCSI/NFS) and I/O
devices (NICs/Storage Controllers)
• Updated frequently with new hardware
being added and older hardware removed
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Hardware Compatibility Guide
• Why this guide is important?
– ESX/ESXi has a limited set of hardware
device drivers
– VMware only provides support for
hardware that is listed on the HCG
• Hardware may still work if not listed on the
HCG
• Critical area of compatibility is often found
with I/O adapters
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Hardware Compatibility Guide
• Check guide before buying hardware!
• Also check un-official guides (vm-help.com)
• For newer hardware not yet listed on HCG
contact the hardware vendor
http://www.vmware.com/resources/guides.html
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Features that require specific
server hardware
Feature Hardware requirement
vSphere 64-bit CPU & Intel-VT or AMD-V
VMDirectPath Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU
Distributed Power Management NIC w/WOL, Server IPMI or HP iLO
Dynamic Voltage & Frequency
Scaling
Intel Enhanced Speedstep or AMD
Enhanced PowerNow
Fault Tolerance Specific CPU models in Intel’s Core 2 &
Core i7 & AMD’s 3rd Gen Opteron families
VMotion Similar CPU families, no cross vendor
Enhanced VMotion
Compatibility
Intel’s FlexMigration or AMD’s AMD-V
Extended Migration
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vSphere Lab Servers
vSphere lab servers come in all
shapes & sizes…
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CPU Considerations 101
• AMD CPU: AMD-V
• Intel CPU: EM64T & Intel VT
See VMware Knowledge Base article
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003945 for more
details regarding the prerequisites for running
x64-based VMs.
• Ensure AMD-V or Intel VT in enabled in BIOS
• Hyperthreading?
• Use the same processor make & model if
you want to use advanced features such
as VMotion incl. DRS, HA
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For CPU Details including 64 bit details use
CPU ID Utility from VMware
CPU Considerations – CPU ID
Download from
http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html
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CPU Considerations - EVC
Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC)
Designed to further ensure CPU compatibility
between ESX hosts
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List of Fault Tolerance (FT) compatible
CPUs:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008027
Also, VMware SiteSurvey
CPU Considerations – FT
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• Enhanced SpeedStep by Intel
• Enhanced PowerNow! by AMD
These technologies enable a server to
dynamically switch CPU frequencies and
voltages (referred to as Dynamic Voltage &
Frequency Scaling or DVFS)
CPU Considerations – Power Saving
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Memory
Memory is King!
DIMM Sockets – the
more the merrier
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Memory – ECC & Registered
• More Lower Capacity DIMMs Vs Less Higher
Capacity DIMMS
• ECC or Non ECC? (That is the question)
• Registered versus Non-Registered DIMMS
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Networking
A Few Basic Questions?
• How many NICs?
• Using VLANs?
• What ESX/ESXi
features?
• NIC Expansion Options:
- PCI, PCI-X, PCIe
• NIC Speeds – Gigabit highly
recommended
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Networking
• Popular PCIe-based network card models is
the Intel Pro 1000 PT/MT range
• Quad port cards are good but expensive
• If budget is tight eBay is a good source of 2nd
hand cards
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Networking - Switches
• Layer 2 switch is sufficient for most lab or
SMB environments.
• Features to look for:
• Gigabit ports
• Managed or Smart Switch
• VLAN tagging (IEEE 802.1Q)
• QoS
• Jumbo Frames
• If your budget won’t stretch to a
physical router, consider Vyatta
Core VA for lab routing
requirements – it’s free!
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Disks & Storage Controller
• Disk/RAID Controller – the most
problematic component with regard to
compatibility
• Lots of choices: RAID, SAS, SATA, SSD.
IOPS versus Capacity
• ESXi can be run from USB memory
stick/SD Card & if shared storage appliance
used local disk controller not important
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Disks & Storage Controller
• Onboard RAID controllers on entry level
servers & SMB/Home level mother/system
boards are often insufficient
• Dedicated hardware based (eg: PCIe) array
controllers are preferable
• Do you actually need RAID in your lab?
Production use = RAID essential!
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Installing ESXi on to a USB
flash drive
• Very convenient and easy way to use ESXi
• Simple requirements: 1Gb+ flash drive,
ESXi Installable ISO image
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Installing ESXi on to a USB
flash drive
• Can use any flash drive, officially only
supported on hardware vendor supplied
flash drives
• Performance can vary widely between
brands, sizes & models
• Server must support booting from USB
drive
• Use internally instead of externally
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Installing ESXi on to a USB
flash drive
• Install ESXi as normal but select USB flash
drive instead
• Can also use Workstation to install to a VM
– though only appropriate for personal use
• Quality flash drives can last many years and
over 10,000 write cycles
• Use USB image tools to clone or backup
flash drives
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Shared Storage – Physical Devices
Lots of entry level physical storage
devices to choose from:
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Shared Storage – Physical Devices
Popular devices include:
Vendor Models
EMC NX4, NS-120
Iomega ix2-200, ix4-200d, ix12
Synology DS410, DS1010
Drobo Pro, Elite (no NFS support)
Netgear ReadyNAS NVX, Pro
HP MSA Range
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Shared Storage – Physical Devices
• When using ethernet based shared storage,
1Gb networking is a must
• iSCSI/NFS are built into vSphere and work
with any pNICs
• Most affordable shared storage devices are
listed on VMware vSphere HCG
• Many units have lots of advanced features,
are multi-functional, multi-RAID levels &
multi-NICs
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Shared Storage – Physical Devices
• Fibre storage connectivity a nice to have
though there are other options
• Choosing between iSCSI & NFS often
personal preference
• Some storage units support both
• Budget often dictates what you get
• In general, the more you spend, the better
performance you’ll get
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Shared Storage – Physical Devices
• Many units offer special RAID technology,
try not to mix drive speeds/sizes
• More spindles – better performance
• Many units are expandable
• Low cost rack mount units available as well
(EMC NX4, Iomega ix12-300r, Drobo Pro or
Elite)
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Shared Storage – Virtual Storage
Appliances (VSAs)
• Virtual Storage Appliances can turn local
storage into iSCSI/NFS shared storage
• Available to any ESX/ESXi host
• Often much cheaper than buying a
dedicated storage device
• Can be more complicated to setup and
maintain
• Performance often not as good as using a
physical storage appliance
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Shared Storage – Virtual
Storage Appliances (VSAs)
• Many VSA products to chose from
• Paid Commercial & Free
Free VSA options Paid VSA options
EMC Celerra (UBER) StarWind iSCSI SAN
OpenFiler FalconStor NSS
FreeNAS HP Lefthand VSA
Datacore Virtual SAN
• MISCONCEPTION: Paid VSAs offer more
features such as de-dupe, replication and
snapshots. But this is not quite true….
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VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSA
The Celerra UBER VSA v3.2:
• Free to download & use – even commercially
• ESX/ESXi & Workstation VSA formats – also
runs under Fusion
• Uses the same code as run in the EMC
Celerra storage appliances
• Fully featured eg: dedupe, replication
• Already optimised for performance
• UBER VSA running latest version
of DART 6.0.36.4
• Unisphere management console
• 64 bit
• Simple to install & configure
• Not intended for production use
IDEAL FOR A LAB ENVIRONMENT!
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VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSAThe newly released storage management interface Unisphere is included for
free in this latest version of the Celerra UBER VSA (v3.0+)
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Demonstration
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VSA – Example: Celerra UBER VSA
Download the Celerra UBER VSA v3 from http://nickapedia.com
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Step by Step Guide – SRM in a box using
EMC VSA
Free step by step guide on how to setup
and configure VMware SRM with EMC
Celerra VSA
Download from:
http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek
/2010/04/new-celerra-vsa-5648701-and-
updated-srm4-in-a-box-guide.html
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VMware vCenter Server –EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator (VSI)
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VMware vCenter Server –EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator (VSI)
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VMware vCenter Server –EMC Virtual
Storage Integrator (VSI)
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Plenty of great EMC vCenter Plugin
Information Available
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Other Useful Tools & Resources
Scripts: www.virtu-al.net
vSphere Mini Monitor – Nickapedia.com
UltimateWhiteBox.com
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THANK YOU!
http://www.techhead.co.uk
http://virtualgeek.typepad.com
http://nickapedia.com